Monday, 6 March 2017

"(Marling's) music has been compared to the most celebrated names in the field, particularly Joni Mitchell, whose album Blue was given to Marling by her parents as a 13th birthday present. “If Joni Mitchell didn’t exist, I wouldn’t exist,” she says."

Monday, 27 October 2014

Sean's argument is that Joni's five albums from Blue to Hejira surpass the work of her contemporaries, but the best thing about the article was this comment which, like the comments on the Matala blog, make me wish, and feel like, I was there.

Thursday, 10 April 2014

'One album that still stands out to him from that time is Joni Mitchell’s Blue, the first he can remember his mum playing. “That’s kind of my Holy Grail as a songwriter,” he says. “I just really love writing music and it’s all about lyric and melody to me and truth and
honesty and that is why [One Direction hit] Story Of My Life has done so well because it’s an honest song. It’s not trying to be anything other than it’s a really honest song about life and everything can connect to it and that is really why I hold Blue up as the Holy Grail of albums because you couldn’t get anything more honest.

“That album got me into Carole King, got me into Tapestry. It really opened the door to a load of music for me. When I think of music I think of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor. I think of these singer songwriters who sit down and write really honest music.”'

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Joni says: "If you listen to that music and you see me, you're not
getting anything out of it. If you listen to that music and you see yourself, it'll
probably make you cry and you'll learn something about yourself, and now you're
getting something out of it.

"When I realised how popular I was becoming it was right before Blue and I
thought 'Oh my god, a lot of people are listening to me. Well then they'd
better find out who they're worshipping. Let's see if they can take it. Let's
get real.' So I wrote Blue which horrified a lot of people and then it created
a lot of attention that was really
weird and so then I bought a property in British Columbia and dropped out. Because
what had happened is they're looking at me, and all I've done is reveal human
traits but they haven't seen themselves in it. At the point that they see themselves
in it, the communication is complete. At the point where they're looking at me
it's like taste of blood, it's like Marilyn Monroe on a tightrope or something.

"Blue is considered a classic now, but at the time? No, they were horrified. Kris Kristofferson went 'Joni, keep something of yourself'. Johnny Cash said 'The world is on your shoulders'. The game was to make yourself larger than life; don't reveal anything
human, and my thing was why? It has been done in film. But the trouble is, I'm
the playwright, I'm the actress, and I want them to look at the play and see
past it, but it's such an intimate art form and I'm revealing so much of it that
all the attention is going to me, which is insane from my point of view, because you're not going to get anything out of it if you look at me. You've got to see
yourself in it, otherwise it has no value."

The New Yorker article she refers to about a "black woman" (Zadie Smith) learning to love Blue is here.

Wednesday, 12 June 2013

CBC say "This week we were excited to present Jian's broadcast exclusive interview with Joni Mitchell in advance of her tribute concert, "Joni: A Portrait in Song" at Toronto's Luminato Festival.

We've just posted video of the revealing interview inside Mitchell's Los Angeles home. Watch Mitchell open up about how she dealt with fame, her fight to remain original, and how painting shaped her approach to songwriting.

The interview will be airing on CBC on Sunday at 1pm and interview segments can be found below